Jolanda Jones: Paradigm shifts on need for regional crime lab

Tide turning for independent science facility

JOLANDA “JO” JONES, Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Saturday, March 21, 2009

Thanks to a collective failure regarding Ricardo Rachell, who served six years in prison for a child sex assault that DNA evidence now shows he did not commit, it seems there may be a paradigm shift under way on the need for an independent crime lab.

Thank goodness! Let me be clear, a law enforcement department should never be in the business of performing science on the very accused citizens it is responsible for arresting and building a case against.

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos is right to call for the establishment of an independent, regional crime lab.

I have also advocated for a regional crime lab for about 10 years, which would effectively get law enforcement and the city of Houston out of the crime lab business. Last year, as a City Council member for less than three months, I proposed a budget amendment that sought to accomplish this end, and have proposed the same amendment this year. We’ll see.

In creating a regional crime lab, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There are jurisdictions, which are closer than England and which test more than DNA, that do a fine job of providing good science to law enforcement in a timely fashion. Here are ideas that may be beneficial to jurisdictions within the Houston/Harris County region.

All we have to do is look west to San Antonio. Interestingly, San Antonio’s crime lab used to have problems similar to HPD’s. When faced with its bad science, San Antonio used Dallas’ model as a basis on which to improve. Consequently, the Bexar County Criminal Investigation Lab was born and ultimately became the first local crime lab in Texas to be nationally accredited in 1998.

The BCCIL runs efficiently and effectively and is independent of law enforcement. It is owned and operated by Bexar County. It is set up to do business by an interlocal agreement between Bexar County and the City of San Antonio, its largest customer. Its funding is crucial; consequently, its whole budget is a line item from its general fund, allocated just like any other department. The BCCIL’s revenue is generated in two ways. First, each calendar year the city of San Antonio agrees to commit at least the same amount of money spent on lab services as the previous year. This stipulation ensures both parties have the ability to plan their budgets adequately for the current and following years. Second, a fee-for-services schedule is set up for all other customers, including at least 50 different law enforcement agencies.

A portion of the money collected is required to go toward maintaining accreditation with the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD) and for purchasing new lab equipment to guarantee valid scientific standards are met.

To those who complain about timely turn-around, the BCCIL has figured that one out for the most part, as well. Here are the approximate turn-around times for the following categories: Drug identification, one week; trace evidence, two weeks; forensic biology, three weeks; DNA analysis, six to eight weeks; and fire arms, two years.

The reason for the two-year wait is that Bexar County has been unable to keep qualified scientists. They almost always leave for higher paying jobs. The only two departments the BCCIL does not have are toxicology and fingerprinting, but those disciplines are handled by the medical examiner’s office.

This set-up would help Harris County in two ways: It would save money and speed up the judicial process by quickly exonerating the innocent or expediting guilty pleas.

I know, from my professional experience as an attorney, just how important a speedy judicial process can be. One of my court-appointed clients was charged with possession of a controlled substance of less than one gram. After many months, the alleged controlled substance had not been tested. Trial had not been set and was nowhere close to being set because of a backlog. My client made a decision to plead guilty because it would get him out of jail before the substance could be tested. It should be noted there was insufficient sample left for the defense to test independently, and it was common practice for judges not to authorize the cost of independent testing for the defense.

More than a year after my client was charged and after he had served his time, I received notice from the district attorney’s office that the alleged controlled substance was finally tested and was NOT a controlled substance. Had the evidence in my client’s case been tested, within two weeks, he would have been set free. It also would have saved Harris County the cost of housing an innocent man for months.

If for some reason Harris County does not want to follow the Bexar County model, it could look to Dallas County or on a more national level, the Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Lab. Clearly, there are options out there which address the county’s needs.

A regional crime lab will separate science from law enforcement, help our police officers stay focused on apprehending criminals and preventing crime, and guard against the cross-contamination of motivations and results. Houston and Harris County don’t have to reinvent the wheel — by using formulas that are working in other cities and counties, our law enforcement agencies can work together to keep all of us safe.